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Omaha woman comforts cancer patients with a SMAC

An Omaha woman is bringing an army of sock monkeys to help patients fight cancer.

Jennifer Windrum raised $35,000 to create her first batch of 1,000 Sock Monkeys Against Caner and plans on sending them to Florida, California, Australia, Italy and all over the globe.

The idea was born when Windrum’s mother was battling lung cancer. Windrum was in Omaha and her mother was in Phoenix.

“I couldn’t be with her for all of her treatments, it was especially hard, and so I wanted there to be something tangible that I could give to her to let her know that I was with her, just something of comfort,” Windrum said.

Windrum decided her mother wasn’t the only one who could use some help smacking cancer, so she started an online crowd-funding campaign."It really means the world to see these monkeys going all over the world,” she said. “It makes my heart melt because they meant so much to my mom."

Hundreds of people who supported the crowd-funding campaign opted to give away a monkey rather than get one for themselves, so Windrum will soon be delivering more than 400 SMAC! Monkeys to patients at the Nebraska Medical Center.

“It’s all about comfort and having a little buddy there as you go through something like this,” she said.

Although her mother died in December, Windrum wanted to continue to give others love and support.

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